A middle school student in the United States shot and killed four classmates, and his mother was convicted of manslaughter on February 6 local time. According to the Associated Press,This is the first time that the parents of students in the U.S. have been sentenced in the case of multiple deaths and injuries on campus.
A 12-member jury convicted defendant Jennifer Crumbley of manslaughter that day. Prosecutors accused her of failing to properly keep her guns and failing to provide assistance to her son, who was suffering from psychological problems.
Ethan Crumbley, then 15, opened fire at Oxford Township Middle School near Detroit, Michigan, on November 30, 2021Four classmates were killed, six classmates and a teacher were injured. He pleaded guilty to four first-degree counts in 2022 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The pistol Ethan used was a gift from his father, James Clumbley, four days before the crime. The day after Ethan gets his pistol, Jennifer takes him to a shooting range to practice shooting.
On the morning of the incident, prosecutors said, teachers found "disturbing" drawings and words in Ethan's math workbook. Ethan, who drew guns, bullets and a bleeding man, wrote, "These thoughts can't be stopped. Help me. The world is dead. My life has no meaning. ”
The school called Ethan's parents to the school and asked them to provide him with psychological counseling and take him home. But Ethan's parents refused to take him home.
Later, Ethan pulls a gun out of his bag and shoots at the teacher and classmates.
The school said that if the Crumbleys had told Ethan that they had been given a gun, they would never have kept Ethan at the school.
Ethan once wrote in his diary that his parents ignored his pleas for help. "I have no help with my psychological problems at all. This makes me want to shoot at the school. ”
Prosecutor Karen MacDonald told the jury at the trial that Jennifer was indifferent to the child's condition and did not take the necessary precautions. "She should have locked up the gun and bullets, she should have told the school that they gave him a gun as a gift, she should have told the school that her son was in a crisis and was asking for help. ”
Jennifer's defense attorney stressed that Jennifer could not have predicted her son's actions and that parents should not be held responsible for anything the child did.
Ethan's father, James, has also been charged with manslaughter, and the trial is scheduled to begin on March 5.
The United States is rampant with guns, with a total population of about 3300 million, and the number of civilian guns exceeds 400 million, and gun-related violence is the norm in American social life. According to the U.S. "Gun Violence Archive"**, last year, there were more than 650 mass incidents in the United States that resulted in at least four people in addition to the gunman**.
Campuses of all kinds** are also common in the United States. U.S. data shows that about three-quarters of gunmen in recent school incidents have come from their homes.
After the verdict was pronounced by the jury, the father of one of the students killed in the Oxfordtown Secondary School case said: "This verdict will reverberate in every family in this country. ”
Josh Horwitz, director of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Reuters: "The jury understands that in today's United States, buying a gun for a mentally unstable teenager is grossly irresponsible and puts society at risk." ”
The Associated Press reportsJennifer's maximum sentence is 15 years; If prosecutors ask for consecutive sentences on four counts of manslaughter, she could face 60 years in prison.